Guru Nanak II (Angad)-Obedience Early Life (1504-1539)
Bhai Lehna, whom Guru Nanak found worthy to carry on his work for men, was born four hours before day break on 31st March 1504 at Matte di Saran, near Muktsar in the district of Ferozepur. His father, Bhai Feruji, was a trader and a village priest of the Goddes Durga, his mother was one Daya Kaur. When the village was sacked during Babar’s invasion the young man went with his father, his wife Khivi, two sons Dasu and Datu and a daughter Amro, to the town of Khadur in 1526 Bhai Feruji died and Lehna became the head of the family.
One early morning in 1532 he chanced to hear Bhai Jodhe chanting the hymns of Guru Nanak, and was so charmed by their beauty that he went at once to Kartarpur to see the renowned Saint. He found Nanak hard at work in the fields, cutting grass with his own hands, and at once began to serve him as Guru, carrying bundles of the muddy grass on his own head. That evening he saw his family Goddes doing padapuja to the Guru, and his life was settled for him by destiny. A short visit home was enough for him to wind up domestic affairs for good, and he settled at Kartarpur with the Guru to serve him and enjoy his sweet company. Lehna’s humility and voluntary poverty won the heart of Guru as he busied himself in sweeping the visitor’s quarters, washing their clothes, and doing all kinds of other remedial work. Daily he used to bathe long before dawn and then sit before the Guru for three hours of rapt meditation. Again and again was he tested for patience, endurance and obedience; always he came triumphantly through the tests. After three years, in 1535 he was sent home to his village, where the Guru twice visited him. On the second visit he changed the name of this faithful servant; embracing him he called him ‘Angi-Khud’ (i.e, Angad, of my own limb) and added: “Hereafter there is no more difference between you and me!” He then took him back to Karfarpur.
On the 2nd September 1539 the Guru bade Bhai Budha put in tilak mark on Angad’s brow and proclaim him the future Guru by seating him on the royal guddi, But Guru Nanak’s sons, Srichand and Lakhmidas, were vexed at this, so the Guru sent his beloved disciple home to Khadur, where for six months he lived in silent intense meditation, taking daily a small pot of milk and seeing no visitors. The Sikhs were distressed at the absence of their chosen teacher, but for a long while no one could find out where he was till Bhai Budha used his clairvoyant powers. With three companions he went to the place, and when he opened to them they saw his face shone like Guru Nanak’s as he agreed to be their Guru in obedience to his own Guru’s will.
His was indeed a fine character, of sterling piety and unflinching devotion, so that he lived in an ecstasy of serving love. He was fond of playing with children, took part in manly sports and enjoyed watching them also, and was always reverent to the common people. All that come to his hands went at once for the poor, while he himself lived in extreme simplicity, earning his livelihood by twisting coarse yarn and string. After his morning bath, singing of hymns and meditation, he used to heal many sick people, including even lepers; and then he preached to all who came to him, expounding the great hymns of Guru and often explaining them with couplets of his own. After the common meal the children were called for their instruction, and then they watched wrestling matches, etc. The Guru taught all who came to the Ashram, quite irrespective of their caste or apparent fitness for his teaching.
Like his Guru, Angad too wanted to raise Hinduism from within; in order to expel superstition, he modified the script of the Punjabi language, that it might be more easily learned by illiterates and so the hymns be wider known. This “Gurumukhi” script did much to break down the haughty exclusiveness of the Brahmins, who had enjoyed almost a monopoly of literacy and learning for so many years, from his own memories and those of Bhai Bala and other disciples, Guru Angad wrote the first “Life” of Guru Nanak, and this was the first published work of Punjabi prose.
He organized more fully the Guru’s free kitchen, personally seeing to the needs of the poor who came there and with great kindness supervising their meals, which were taken along with devotees and other visitors, caste being thus freely broken by all in the Ashram. This ‘langar’ proved a powerful aid to publicity for Sikhism, besides being also a noble field of charity and a bond of union among the disciples, so that they were gradually welded into a distinct group. Though still holding many Hindu ideas and customs, the Sikhs shared a simple manly and zealous faith, purified from all gross superstition and lit by devotion to their common Guru.
One day Emperor Humayun came there; he was told he must wait for an interview with the Guru who was then absorbed in deep ecstasy. He was annoyed at this rebuff and angrily drew his sword; when the Guru received him he prophesied that Humayun must wander for some time in exile but would later regain his throne. And that is what took place.
The coming of Amar Das to his Ashram brightened the Guru’s lat days in that body, though he was once driven away from Khadur by an ascetic because rain had failed; as the ascetic failed to make rain, the people drove him away and called Guru Angad back. He passed with the name of Vahiguru on his lips, on Tuesday, 29th March 1552, after very nearly completing 49 years of life and after installing Amar Das as Guru in his place because he deemed his own sons to be unworthy. The “light” of Guru Nanak moved over into the already old body of Amar Das.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 12, 1990
